TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2010
Race For Eastern and Western Conference Titles
By Arthur Staple
Newsday
EASTERN CONFERENCE
1. WHO WANTS IT? The top seed in
the East hasn’t won more than one round
in each of the last three seasons, with the
Washington Capitals last season becom-
ing the first No. 1 East seed to lose in the
opening round since 2002. The Caps and
Penguins are again the class of the con-
ference, but is it worthwhile to grab that
top overall spot?
2. SID VS. OVIE. Sidney Crosby and
Alex Ovechkin get to renew their rivalry
on the grandest regular-season stage New
Year’s Day, with the Penguins and Capi-
tals meeting in Heinz Field in the Winter
Classic. Neither could will his team to
the Stanley Cup Finals last season, and
Ovechkin has to prove he can lead his
team over the long haul.
3. A MESSY SUMMER IN NEW-
David M Warren/Philadelphia In-
quirer/MCT
Cancer patient, Rachel Fiol, views
what she describes as her daily re-
gime of medication, May 29, 2009, in
her Lansdowne, Pennsylvania home.
Cancer
Patients’
Agony of
Options
By Stacey Burling
The Philadelphia Inquirer
PHILADELPHIA—Brita Hud-
son-Smith went to her first meeting
with her new oncologist in December
armed with family.
She knew she would need help
hearing, really hearing, what the doc-
tor had to say about her shocking di-
agnosis: lung cancer.
The doctor entered the exam room
at Penn Presbyterian Medical Cen-
ter to find a crowd. Hudson-Smith, a
nonsmoker whose work had involved
encouraging healthy lifestyles, was
there with her husband, her sisters and
her daughter.
With Hudson-Smith’s diagnosis,
they all hurtled into the excruciat-
ingly complex realm of modern med-
ical decision-making. Hudson-Smith
knew she would need their help to di-
gest mountains of information and to
support her emotionally as she chose
how to fight for her life.
In truth, she would need more.
But like thousands of others, she
and her family—still emotionally
raw and shaken from heartbreaking
news—would largely be on their
own to devise a crash course in her
rare, relatively slow-growing cancer
and figure out what to do.
It hasn’t been easy. Hudson-Smith
has second-guessed her decisions and
felt torn between her doctor and her
family, all the while worrying about
the cost of her care. She has found the
amount of information overwhelm-
ing. It’s been hard to know what to
believe, whom to trust.
“I call it a 24/7 kind of thing.
All day long, you’re thinking about
‘What should I do? Who should I lis-
ten to?’ And some days you just have
to let it go,” said Hudson-Smith, who
is 64 and lives in Philadelphia.
“It just adds more stress because
it’s not clear, you know. Somebody
can present you with information, but
information is one thing. Truth is an-
other.”
Not that long ago, cancer patients
expected their doctors to tell them
what to do. Maybe there was only one
treatment for a disease anyway. They
could accept it or go home and wait
See CANCER on 5B
ARK. Ilya Kovalchuk is indeed a Devil,
but it took some wrangling with the NHL
to approve the 15-year, $100-million
deal, and Devils president Lou Lamori-
ello still has work to do to get under the
salary cap. Throw in another first-round
flameout by Martin Brodeur in the spring,
and it’s a crucial season for the most con-
sistent franchise in the East.
4. RISING ABOVE THE MEDIO-
CRE. The playoff race in the East went
down to the final shot of the final game,
and then Flyers rode that wave all the
way to the finals. There’s still barely a
difference in talent level between half a
dozen teams in the East—the Senators,
Flyers, Rangers, Thrashers, Canadiens,
Hurricanes, Lightning and Islanders are
still fairly even—so whoever can make
the best run down the stretch could be the
favorite to emerge from the conference.
5. WITH THE FIRST PICK OF THE
2011 NHL DRAFT . . . The Isles suf-
D.C.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid speaks during a news conference after the Senate passed an updated health care “fixes” bill, Thursday, March 25, 2010, in Washington
Health Care Legislation Passed
By David Lightman
McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON—Congress Thurs-
day passed and sent to President Barack
Obama the final piece of landmark health
care legislation intended to change dra-
matically how most Americans buy, use
and maintain insurance coverage.
The House approved the bill by a vote
of 220-207 Thursday night, hours after
the Senate passed the measure by a vote
of 56-43. No Republicans in either cham-
ber voted for either bill.
This legislation, combined with the
bill signed into law on Tuesday, will bring
the most significant change in health care
policy since Medicare was created in
1965 to provide health insurance cover-
age for seniors and the disabled.
The new laws will extend health in-
surance coverage to 32 million people
who currently are uninsured. They will
Tibetans in traditional garb walk along a street in Litang, China. The city is site of a
massive military buildup, apparently to thwart any anti-Chinese uprising.
fered serious injury setbacks already, but
they won’t fall that far. The Leafs again
do not own their first-round pick—the
Bruins could reach the Finals and pick
No. 1‚Äîbut they’re lottery-bound, not
headed straight for the basement. The
Panthers, who have GM Dale Tallon try-
ing to right a listing ship, are going to be
in the battle for the first overall pick from
start to ugly finish.
WESTERN CONFERENCE
1. WINDY CITY REPEAT? In a
word: No. The Chicago Blackhawks still
have the core of Jonathan Toews, Patrick
Kane, Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook,
but a lot of the role players were dropped
to avoid salary-cap hell. Dustin Byfuglien
and Andrew Ladd (Thrashers), Kris Ver-
steeg (Leafs) and Antti Niemi (Sharks)
are all gone; Marty Turco has come on to
be the No. 1 goaltender, which is a seri-
ous downgrade.
2. RETURN OF THE WINGS. Goal-
expand coverage to 94 percent of eligible
Americans. Consumers will find a host
of changes in how they deal with doc-
tors, insurers, hospitals and the rest of the
health care system.
Most people will have to obtain cov-
erage by 2014 or face penalties. Most
employers will have to offer policies by
then, and consumers will be able to shop
for coverage through new exchanges, or
marketplaces.
Several provisions will take effect
within the next year. Some Medicare
prescription drug beneficiaries will get a
$250 rebate this year.
By fall, insurers will no longer be
able to put lifetime caps on coverage, and
must allow young people to remain on
their parents’ policies until they turn 26.
Insurers also will be barred from drop-
ping coverage when people get sick and
from refusing to cover children with pre-
existing conditions.
Tim Johnson/MCT
tender Jimmy Howard is a year older and
wiser and the most complete set of for-
wards in the league should make up for
a slightly-too-old defense. Addition of
hometown guy Mike Modano signifies
the Wings are ready for one more serious
run in the Nicklas Lidstrom era.
3. SURPRISE! COYOTES STILL A
MESS. Don Maloney won exec of the
year for putting together a winning team
in Phoenix—though most of the credit
should go to coach Dave Tippett—but
the Coyotes are still in financial limbo
and last season’s success won’t carry
over either in the stands or on the ice.
Too many good teams out West, and Ilya
Bryzgalov has to prove last season wasn’t
an aberration.
4. SHARKS’ MAJOR CHANGE. Out
went Evgeni Nabokov to Russia, in came
Niemi, a most unlikely Stanley Cup-win-
See HOCKEY on 2A
Olivier Douliery/Abaca Press/MCT
Starting in January 2011, insurers in
the individual and small-group market
will be required to spend 80 percent of
their premium dollars on medical servic-
es. Those in larger group markets would
have to spend 85 percent. If they don’t
comply, they would have to give con-
sumers rebates.
The reconciliation bill approved
Thursday contains fixes to the big health
care bill that Obama signed into law
Tuesday, and was part of a political deal
needed to get both measures through
Congress.
House Democrats had objected to
several provisions in the new law, nota-
bly an excise tax on high-end insurance
policies that labor unions fought, as well
as a series of special deals for individual
lawmakers. The reconciliation bill de-
layed the tax until 2018, and some of the
controversial deals were eliminated.
The bill will give more government
The Dalai Lama: Ruler and Philosopher
By Carlin Romano
The Philadelphia Inquirer
“The Open Road: The Global
Journey of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, by
Pico Iyer; Alfred A. Knopf ($24)
___
As the Chinese government
cracked down on Tibetan protesters last
week, the Dalai Lama surprised some
journalists who don’t usually cover him
or Tibetan-Chinese issues.
Speaking to reporters in the
Indian hill town of Dharamsala, for
almost 50 years home of the Tibetan
government-in-exile, the 72-year-old
spiritual and secular leader of his people
expressed concern for Chinese injured by
his followers in Tibet, even threatening to
resign from his secular duties if violence
against Chinese persisted.
This from a Tibetan leader
Chris Seward/Raleigh News & Observer/MCT
Carolina Hurricanes right wing Patrick Dwyer (39) battles for the puck with Atlanta
Thrashers center Anthony Stewart (22) during second-period action in a pre-season
game at the RBC Center in Raleigh, North Carolina, Friday, October 1, 2010. The
Hurricanes defeated the Thrashers 2-1 in overtime.
help with insurance premiums for low-
er- and middle-class families and aid
to states for Medicaid, the state-federal
health program for lower-income people.
To help pay for the changes, wealthier
people will pay more Medicare payroll
tax starting in 2013.
Single people who earn more than
$200,000 a year, and joint filers who
make more than $250,000, will see the
tax increase by 0.9 percentage points in
2013, to 2.35 percent, and will pay a new
3.8 percent tax on dividends, interest and
other unearned income.
The reconciliation bill’s passage has
been assured all week. Republicans tried
to insert changes, forcing votes on 40
amendments or procedural points, but
Democrats rejected each on party line
votes Wednesday and Thursday.
The GOP’s effort seemed to lose
See HEALTH on 3A
who fled the Chinese in 1959 as a “boy
king” of 24, whose homeland, after Mao
Tse-tung’s Chinese forces attacked in
1949, suffered what the International
Commission of Jurists judged to be
genocide. (Iyer writes: “One in every
five Tibetans—more than a million in
all—died of starvation or in direct en-
counters with the Chinese, according to
Tibetan estimates.”)
This from a man the Chinese
government calls “a wolf in monk’s
clothing.”
It doesn’t happen much around
the world‚Äî”dissident” leaders express-
ing sympathy for their enemies and op-
pressors. Hamas honchos don’t weep for
slaughtered yeshiva boys. Members of
Colombia’s FARC don’t bat an eye as
their hostages wither and die. Supposedly
devout Muslims in Iraq kill fellow Mus-
lims without a second thought.
Secretariat
Wins Hearts
of Execs
By Chmielewski and John Horn
Los Angeles Times
It didn’t look like Secretariat could
pull it off. Coming out of the gate at
the 1973 Kentucky Derby, the chest-
nut colt fell behind all but two horses
and dropped more than nine lengths
off the leaders down the backstretch.
Under the whip from jockey Ron
Turcotte, the thoroughbred suddenly
blitzed the field, winning the Derby
and the nation’s adoration.
That stirring come-from-behind
race‚Äîthe opening leg in the horse’s
ridiculously lopsided Triple Crown
triumph, the first such sweep in 25
years‚Äîis at the center of “Secretar-
iat,” a Disney drama opening Friday
about the legendary equine, uncon-
ventional owner Penny Chenery (Di-
ane Lane) and eccentric trainer Luc-
ien Laurin (John Malkovich).
It’s the kind of feel-good fam-
ily film‚Äî”Secretariat” is rated
PG—that evokes the quintessential
Disney films of the era it’s set in:
“Freaky Friday,” “Pete’s Dragon”
and “The Love Bug.” At the same
time, the movie recalls the studio’s
rousing sports dramas of the past
decade, a slate that includes “The
Rookie,” “Remember the Titans” and
“Miracle.”
Disney’s new top executives be-
lieve “Secretariat,” a project begun
by their predecessors, distills their
creative and commercial ambitions,
and they are promising to make more
modestly budgeted, uplifting films in
its hoof prints.
“It’s a movie that speaks to who
we are today and where we are go-
ing,” studio chief Rich Ross said of
See DISNEY on 3C
MCT
Diane Lane stars in “Secretariat” from
Disney Enterprises.
But the Dalai Lama, like the
great men to whom he’s most rightly
compared—Mohandas Gandhi, Nelson
Mandela, Vaclav Havel, the Rev. Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr.—lives by his
own rules of compassion and consis-
tency, a Nobel Peace Prize recipient who
embodies the spirit of that sometimes
oddly bestowed honor. Unique in his of-
fice as both the spiritual leader of Tibetan
Buddhism and head of state of a land
that China says it runs as an autonomous
province, he remains a blend of Caesar
and Christ, ruler and philosopher, canny
scientist and devout monk.
“The Open Road,” Pico Iyer’s
beautifully written, up-close meditation
about him—a superb portrait of a cel-
ebrated figure whom the master journal-
ist and his family have known person-
See DALAI LAMA on 2B